In Revelation 21 the church (the ‘bride’) is described as a city, a new Jerusalem, in intricate detail. John is referencing from all over the Bible, he has the later part of Ezekiel and Genesis 2 in particular view, but liberally references elsewhere.
John is at this point in Revelation talking about the future; this is a claim that some will agree with that I’m not going to defend. I don’t think all the book is about the future, but I think these new heavens and new earth here are. But it’s a future that speaks into the church today for two reasons.
Firstly, the new heavens and new earth of the first verse were inaugurated in the resurrection of Jesus, as John is at great pains to make clear in his garden encounters between Jesus and ‘the woman’ Mary. This is, by the by, where an argument that even these last two chapters of Revelation describe the world today would come from. We are stepping into this world, even if John’s account of it in chapters 21 and 22 of his apocalypse are what it will ‘look’ like in its fullness.
Secondly, and really saying the same thing from another angle, if this is what the perfected church looks like in her glory, then our churches should have this in view now. This is the goal that we are growing towards, so our efforts to tend and aid that growth should have this firmly in view.
What I’d like to zoom in on, as the title rather gives away, is three features of the city that can inform our churches today: its shape, its foundations, and its gates.
Shape
The city is a cube, just under 1400 miles in each direction, including up (15-17). Which is about 1392 miles beyond the heights at which we could breathe. This thing is massive. Why are we told this? While I suppose there could be literal Borg cube of a city in the age to come, I think this is missing it a bit.
The dimension given is 12,000 stadia. In Revelation’s language we should read that as 12 x lots, which we should read as Israel x lots. The Church will be enormous, and glorious in our breadth and depth.
More importantly for John is the shape—a perfect cube. We’re meant to think of the Holy of Holies (Exodus 26, 1 Kings 6), the place where Heaven touches Earth. The Church is a holy place, and where Heaven touches Earth. Do we think of what we do when we gather together like that? Do we think of ourselves as a people that embodies heaven touching earth? We should, because we are, and we will be.
Foundation
The foundation of the New Jerusalem has the names of the twelve apostles inscribed on it (14) and is adorned with twelve specific jewels (19-20): Jasper, Sapphire, Agate, Emerald, Onyx, Carnelian, Chrysolite, Beryl, Topaz, Chrysoprase, Jacinth, Amethyst.
The church is built on a foundation of the church. Which seems tautological. We see here both the apostle’s teaching (the Bible), and the tradition (the history that flows from our forefathers). These are not equal things; I remain a Protestant. Nevertheless, we stand on both. We can also read here implicitly of the gift of the apostle to the New Testament church (Ephesians 4), the master builders (1 Corinthians 3) who help churches lay foundations.
That foundation is beautifully adorned with twelve very specific stones. These are the stones in the High Priest’s breastplate (Exodus 28) and reading Revelation alongside Exodus does seem to give us red, green, yellow, blue in clear gems, then in opaque gems, and then in striped gems. I can’t discern the significance of the colours, but being unable to see many colours I don’t find thinking in colour very straightforward.
What I can tell you is that the city wearing the High Priest’s breastplate is to remind us that the Church stands ready to enter the most holy place. We should also remember that the breastplate was adorned in the pattern of the camp in the wilderness, with each gem inscribed with the name of a tribe, so here the city is the camp of Israel. The church has been grafted into Christ, the true Israel, and we find ourselves camping in him. We should remember who we are. What we do every Sunday is steeped in history, glory, and mystery, even if it doesn’t look like it to the casual observer.
Gates
The New Jerusalem has gates, 12 of them, three open to each cardinal direction (12-13). They are guarded by angels. We also read that they’re made of pearls (21) and that the kings of the nations will walk into it with their glory, but the unclean won’t (26-27).
The first thing to notice is that there are gates, and walls. You can’t just wander in. Welcome requires walls, after all. We also need gatekeepers, here they are angels, in our churches they are elders in their judging role.
The second thing to notice is the number of them. They sound a lot like the gate to Eden’s Garden in Genesis 3, which was guarded by a cherubim and a flaming sword so that none could enter. They’re still guarded, but now there are twelve. They face each direction rather than just east like Eden’s. This is to say that you can enter from every side; people will come in from all over the earth. This should be true of the church too: open to all kinds of people but guarded so that those who are not written in the book cannot enter.
Of course, we live in a moment before the end when we want those who don’t know Jesus to repent so they can enter. All you must do is die and rise again (in Baptism). This means our lines at the gate won’t be so stark, but we can’t have no lines. I think it’s just a question of where to draw them. It’s best, I would suggest, to guard the gate at the place in our worship that is most like Eden and touches this future moment most closely: the Lord’s Table.
The third thing to notice is that they’re pearls. Which are formed from the suffering of oysters, oddly enough. Gospelly. A firmer connection to draw though is to do a (very) brief biblical theology of pearls. Jesus relates them to holy things (Matthew 7) and to the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13). Notice that in that second parable the pearl is what the merchant wanted so he sold everything to get it. We might think that this is us, selling everything to get to Jesus; this is a true and beautiful reading, but it’s the second reading. The first is that the merchant is Christ who gave everything to buy us. Our sacrificial giving is in response to his (2 Corinthians 8).
The gates through which we enter speak of the Christ who buys us to win us entry we don’t merit, and our own sacrifices to get to Christ in response.
A Church like a City
I could dig into a number of other details in Revelation 21 (and 22!) in the same way, but for this suffice to say that the church is the holy place, where heaven touches earth, that stands on firm foundations, allowing all to enter as long as they first die to live.
Photo by Reanimated Man X on Unsplash
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